Bible Dictionaries
Transfigure

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: μεταμορφόω

(Strong's #3339 — Verb — metamorphoo — met-am-or-fo'-o )

"to change into another form" (meta, implying change, and morphe, "form:" see FORM , No. 1), is used in the Passive Voice (a) of Christ's "transfiguration," Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2; Luke (in Luke 9:29 ) avoids this term, which might have suggested to gentile readers the metamorphoses of heathen gods, and uses the phrase egeneto heteron, "was altered," lit., "became (ginomai) different (heteros);" (b) of believers, Romans 12:2 , "be ye transformed," the obligation being to undergo a complete change which, under the power of God, will find expression in character and conduct; morphe lays stress on the inward change, schema (see the preceding verb in that verse, suschematizo) lays stress on the outward (see FASHION , No. 3, FORM, No. 2); the present continuous tenses indicate a process; 2 Corinthians 3:18 describes believers as being "transformed (RV) into the same image" (i.e., of Christ in all His moral excellencies), the change being effected by the Holy Spirit.

Bibliography Information
Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Transfigure'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​ved/​t/transfigure.html. 1940.